Tara Murray
Sanctuary Lakes will use the disappointment of its Victorian Turf Cricket Association division 5 finals loss, to come back bigger and better.
Playing finals for the first time since crossing to the VTCA, the Sharks proved no match for Footscray Angliss on the weekend.
Sharks skipper Brett Talbot said they will take a lot out of this season where they made massive inroads.
“We got beaten by a well drilled team,” he said.
“We are sort of 12 months away from where Footscray Angliss are now. They were in a similar position to us last season.
“We’ll use this as a really good experience and it will hopefully spur us on to bigger and better things.”
The Sharks entered the finals as the underdogs, having only secured their finals spot in the final round of the season.
Angliss, which won the minor premiership, won the toss and decided to bat on its home track.
Angliss were bowled out for 243 in the 74th over.
Talbot said late runs for Angliss would prove costly.
“It looked like we would keep them to about 160, before one of their guys came in and took the game away from us.
“He made 87 in fast time and made it a more challenging target than we would have liked.”
James Doolan was the pick of the bowlers for the Sharks with four wickets.
The Sharks had to face three overs at the end of day one. Jack Gage wasn’t able to survive the day, out for just eight.
Talbot said they never really got going with the bat on day two.
“I got out after about 10 overs to a really good ball and we struggled to get any momentum going,” he said.
The Sharks were all out for 118 in the 44th over. Amit Nayyar top scored with 27 coming in at number nine.
Footscray Angliss will now play East Coburg in the grand final, after it beat Melton South Royals in the other semi final.
It wasn’t all bad news for the Sharks on the weekend. Both their second and third XIs won through to grand finals.
Talbot said from a club point of view, getting those sides into the final match of the season was a success.
“They both had convincing wins by about 50-60 runs,” he said.
“We have some good young kids coming through and it’s nice to see them get into a grand final as it doesn’t come around all the time.
“We think both teams will give it a good shake.”
The second XI is going for back-to-back flags, while the third has already gone one step further than last season when they were knocked out in the semi finals.
The second XI will be at home against Footscray Angliss, while the third XI will host the Greenvale Kangaroos.
